Welcome to Live Love Play and this highlight from XCOM 2. In this video my squad responds to an Advent retaliation strike. The return of an The crysalid leaves me in a bit of a fit. To find out why, keep reading

Chryssalid from UFO Defense

So, the Crysalids have come a long way since their original form in XCOM UFO Defense. Those original crysalids were more reminiscent of Xenomorphs from the Alien movies. Those monsters were the bane of my existence in the terror attacks of UFO Defense. These armored monstrosities roam the battlefield and convert civilians and soldiers into zombies with a single touch. After a few turns those zombies birth new crysalids that continue to spread their terrible numbers. It got to the point that whenever I encountered a chrysalid in those early games I would immediately abandon the mission, leaving all the civilians to die horribly and a yellow streak trailing behind me.

Chryssalid XCOM 2

Enemy Unknown revamped many of the the original aliens from UFO Defense, the crysalids included. The new crysalids were agile and fast but lacked the armor of their predecessors. They still retain the terrifying reproductive system. But rather than turning someone with a single touch the victim is poisoned and killed. If killed the Crysalid deposits its larvae into the corpse. The corpse reanimates and, given enough time, gestates and hatches a new crysalid. Though the sight of them has not sent me scurrying back to the dropship and slamming the “Nope” button, they still intimidate me.

Crysalid Zombie UFO Defense

XCOM 2, on the other hand, further improve and refine the enemy types. Old foes return deadlier than ever and every new encounter shows me just how deadly they’ve become. So, when the crysalid makes their latest appearance I am none to happy. Thankfully their mechanics have not changed greatly from their previous iteration and I’m able to dispatch them with relative efficiency. I have bigger things to worry about, like encountering a Gatekeeper and Sectopod all at the same time.

Thank you for watching and reading.

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